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More than half of the 51 people who filed to run for one of 21 seats on the Chicago Board of Education may not make it on the ballot.
That’s after 28 potential candidates had the validity of their petition signatures challenged.
Petition challenges allow registered voters in a candidate’s district to challenge the validity of signatures on their petitions. If the Chicago Board of Elections invalidates enough signatures, it can remove a candidate from the list. This year’s deadline to certify the ballot is Aug. 27.
Four of the five people hoping to be elected at-large to serve as school board president are at risk of being removed. Jennifer Custer is the only unchallenged candidate and will secure a spot in that race.
All nine of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointees currently serving on the school board running to keep their seats are facing challenges to the validity of their signatures. Two elected members aligned with Johnson — Aaron “Jitu” Brown and Yesenia Lopez — have also had their petitions called into question. Johnson’s appointed school board president Sean Harden is not running for election.
Elected incumbents Therese Boyle, Ebony DeBerry, Angel Gutierrez, Carlos A. Rivas Jr., Ellen Rosenfeld, and Che “Rhymefest” Smith escaped challenges and will all be on the ballot in November. Both Rosenfeld and Gutierrez are running unopposed in district 4b and 8a, respectively.
Only two of 21 races — in districts 2a and 4a — are currently guaranteed to have more than one candidate. Incumbent Ebony DeBerry and Bruce Leon, who ran in 2024, went unchallenged and are set to compete in 2a, while Ellen Sherratt and Angel Alvarez made it on the ballot in 4a. Hector Morales could survive a challenge to compete in 2a, as could 4a incumbent Karen Zaccor.
Surviving a petition challenge can require an attorney and take multiple weeks. The time-consuming and costly nature raises questions about ballot access for less resourced candidates. Removing political opponents through petition challenges has also been held up as an example of old-school, Chicago-style politics and were famously used by former President Barack Obama during his first campaign for state senate in 1996.
Chicago school board candidates were required to collect 500 to 1,500 valid signatures from voters in their districts and those running for board president had to collect 2,500 signatures from registered voters in Chicago.
In 2024, 47 people filed to run, but only 31 candidates remained by election day.
This November’s election marks the first time all 21 seats on the Chicago Board of Education will be up for election, ending 30 years of mayoral control. Since 2024, the board has been half-elected and half-appointed.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
